Delaware River

The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States, draining an area of 14,119 square miles in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. It rises in two branches in New York's Catskill Mountains, and it flows 419 miles into the Delaware Bay, where its waters enter the Atlantic Ocean near Cape May. In 1609, the river was first visited by the explorer Henry Hudson, and the Dutch Republic and Sweden established settlements along the lower section of the river and the Delaware Bay. After the English expelled the Dutch and took over New Netherland in 1664, the river was renamed from the "South River" to the "Delaware River" to honor Lord Delaware, the first colonial governor of Virginia. In December 1776, George Washington and his Continental Army famously crossed the Delaware to surprise the Hessians at Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.